Tell a Texan New Englander about oil furnaces

[cracker39]

That's why I shut off the power to the oil furnace when I worked with the transformer hinged back. It pays to be careful. My advice is that if you don't know what you are doing, leave it to the pros. I had my oil furnace inspected (had to) before selling the house, and it didn't pass. I had to install a new one before I could close.

[TRAIL-OF-TEARS]

D. Tillery,
Gone are the days of just running your heater three days a month in the winter, or turning on the AC so you can have a fire in the fireplace on Christmas. Good luck up there, and stay warm.

[D. Tillery]

OK folks. Since my wife and I will be home all day I decided to turn on the heater so we could watch it. I set the thermostat, one of those fancy digital timer jobs, and went to the basement. The thing is burning and blowing so.... HOW THE HECK LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET HEAT?

I opened the velves at the radiators. My wife said it sounds like there is a mouse in there. I feel like a caveman rubbing two sticks together with this system. Thre's gotta be a better way.

D. Tillery

[madjack]

D, since this is the first time you have fired it up, it may take awhile for everything to heat up...hot water radiant heat is much slower than the blast of hot air from the type of unit your are familiar with...the radiant heat should provide slow even heating almost all of the time once it is up and running
madjack

[goldcoop]

MadJack-

I think D has a steam system, he says he has a low water cutoff switch, but may have that confused with something else( like the pressure regulator) because he says he can't find a sight glass...

D-Do you have only one pipe coming into the radiators?

None the less MJ is right it will take a while for the radiators to give off heat.

While the cold radiators heat up the cast iron in the radiators will expand and cause a slight pinking sound and will probably pink again while they cool down, this is normal.

If it is a steam system there should be a vertical glass tube (sight glass) between a couple of angle valves and the water should be about half way.

Trying to help!?

Cheers,

Coop

[Dennis T]

Now if we only had a couple of pictures of the unit from different sides, it would help in seeing if it is steam or hot water? The sight glass was good
The mices could be air in the system for hot water or water hammer with the pipes heating up for steam?

Dennis T

[D. Tillery]

The radiators have only one pipe with a valve. There is a sight glass down near the burner unit. The water level did rise as the unit got hotter. Some of the valves were bubbling water at the radiators and the one in the bathroom kept hissing constantly, but not from the valve. Sounded like it was comming from a bell shaped overflow device.

The lanalord stopped by to show the lower unit yesterday and said he would send someone to service it. I'm going to have that guy show me what everything is and potential problems to look for.

Thanks for everyones help
D. Tillery

[goldcoop]

Ok it is an old one pipe steam system, basically the same thing I have in our 1860 house.

The water in the sight glass will jump up and down while the burner is running, that is normal.

When the burner is NOT running and has not been running for a few minutes (giving time for the condensate to return to the boiler) the water in the sight glass should be about half way up.

Probably a good thing to know is whether or not you have a automatic water feeder, because if you don't you should check the water level occasionally to make sure it's to the correct 1/2 way point.

Also the water visible in the sight glass should be clean & clear if not it could use a good flushing and refill (and possibly water chemicals to correct PH)

The bathroom radiator is probably the highest/furtherest from the boiler and is venting hard to get steam to it (my guess).

Also if your system starts to act weird (irregular cycling, not on schedule,etc.) check the battery in your programmable thermostat, it probably needs replaced....

Good luck & keep warm!

Cheers,

Coop

[Joanne]

Gail,

Thanks for the laugh. I want to college in Flagstaff AZ and it gets down right cold there in the winter. We were living in a little rental that had a gas heater mounted in the wall. One side heated the bedroom and the other side heated the living area. After a shower we would run out and back up close to the heater to warm our back sides. One day I backed up a bit too close to the grate. I had a crosshatch scar on my butt for years after that! I'd go to a new doctor and she would always ask, "What happened there?". After I explained and she quit laughing we could get on with business.

Joanne

Wow.....

Reminds me of the trailer we lived in as graduate students in southern Illinois. Very old with a oil furnace that you worked by lighting it by hand.

Because we were poor students, we'd turn the heat off at night and crawl into our little trailer (twin and a half) bed with the electric blanket (and one dog and four cats; we were thinner then). In the morning one of us would shove and kick the other out of bed to go light the furnace.

You'd run to the furnace naked (we were newlyweds then and things didn't sag so much) and shivering, turn the handle that started the oil dripping into the pan, run back to bed, wait a couple of minutes, run back, light a piece of paper towel, throw open the oil pan door and toss it in (very scientific!).

Sometimes we'd doze off in that nice warm bed, only to wake up with a pan fairly full of oil. Luckily we never did blow ourselves out of that little trailer lighting the thing but I think we came close a couple of times. It did make an impressive sound when the oil lit up.

Gail

[D. Tillery]

You gals are bringing back some memories. My grandmother's house in Dallas had those big gas floor furnaces. I can remember a few criss-cross scars over the years. An old girlfriend got one on her back but that was in the summer! Those were the days.

As for this heater.....The water in the sight glass is pretty clean but I turned a valve that has a bucket under it and the water poured out very brown. I'm pretty sure it has an auto water fill on it. All the valves around the unit are open except the above mentioned. The house is maybe 20yrs old. Everything looks fairly new and clean on the heater.

Should I bleed out all that dirty water until it runs clear?

So in this one pipe system the steam goes into the radiators and out that bell shaped deal on the side? Seems like that steam would help keep the humidity up. Could we really open the one up in the bathroom like a steam room? That would be nice!

[D. Tillery]

Sorry to bring this back to the top. Hopefully someone can give me some quick advice. My dips**t landlord does not seem too concerned so maybe I can assume everything is normal and I'm overreacting. My wife insisted we turn on the heat before he got a service man out here. So you guys know what I had to do.......Funny I don't quite know what emoticon might be proper in this situation since there is not one for "I know what's good for me and I just dont want to listen to it"

Does air flow through the small bell shaped things on the radiators until they fill with steam? A couple of the radiators keep hissing. I turned off the valve on the ones in unused rooms and they are cold and quiet. Sight glass is 2/3 up and surging up and down a little.

On back of the electric water control near the burner there are two linear adjustments. The cut off point is at 1lb and the differential is at 3lb. What do these mean and should I adjust them?

Help!,DT

[goldcoop]

DT-

Those funny little bell shaped things are automatic vents.

They should have an adjustable dial on them to adjust the amount of venting.

They vent or purge the air in the system ahead of the steam so that the steam can get to the radiators, they do shut when steam hits 'em.

Probably no need for you to adjust these as they were probably "dialed in" during installation of the system.

As for the pressure switch, those settings sound about right for a LOW pressure steam system...

Cheers,

Coop